Try this training secret used by Jakob Ingebrigtsen & Eliud Kipchoge
Moments after he ran an astonishing, fastest-ever 2 mile last week (7:54.10, or back to back miles in 3:57 each), Olympic 1500-meter gold medalist Jakob Ingebrigtsen explained an essential element of his training. It’s something he avoids, but has seen many other runners do.
Here’s the key nugget. “One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people make is that they go too hard in training, because they don’t believe in themselves and need to build up confidence. That’s the wrong mindset. I’m never running faster in training than in competition, because I want the competition to be number one.” More at You Tube.
If this sounds familiar, maybe it’s because marathon world record holder and double Olympic gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge has said something quite similar. “I try not to run 100 percent. I perform 80 percent on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and then at 50 percent Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.” More at Outside Online.
Fifty years ago we used to say, “Train, don’t strain.” I don’t know why that powerful guideline has largely disappeared from the training lexicon. But it deserves a strong comeback. Think about it on your next hard run. You still have to go hard at times. But when you do, maybe scale back just a little bit. Aim for relaxed, controlled “hard” vs intense, gritty hard.
The 30 best running tips of all time
Here’s an article with an irresistible headline and a magazine--Outside--that’s been around for a long time with a solid reputation. That enabled the editors to cull through a lot of old, classic running content (dating as far back as 1996, but mostly in the last decade) to make their selections.
Some are underwhelming--Don’t Run Injured; Don’t Run Drunk--but still worth a quick scan. Some seem contradictory at first--Hydrate; Don’t Hydrate Too Much Before Running. But I’m okay with that. Because the second rule of running, after “Listen to your body,” is “Make specific choices for the specific situation.” And those situations can be so different that the most intelligent approach turns upside down.
The best tips here? I’m voting for “Don’t Pick Just One Running Partner” and “Find a Routine, Then Stick to It.” There’s a lot to be said for variety in training, but sticking to a routine increases your chances of actually doing any day’s workout, and that will always be high on my list of important advice. More at Outside Online.
4 videos that decrease mental fatigue and improve performance
Alex Hutchinson was probably the first fitness journalist to delve into mental fatigue and its influence on physical performance. It became a focus of his best-selling book, Endure, and he continues to follow the topic closely.
In a recent summary article, he wrote about the latest research presented at the American College
of Sports Medicine convention. In short: Outdoor exercise seems for some reason easier than the equivalent workout indoors; the mental-fatigue question is getting more complicated; and watching videos that teach relaxation, breathing, and mental imagery can have a significant impact on performance. More at Outside Online.
I wrote about those videos several weeks ago in RLRH. At the time, they were not available on YouTube. Now they are. Here are links to 4 videos featuring Dr. Stephen Gonzalez. Video 1. Video 2. Video 3. Video 4. They range in length from 4 to 11 minutes.
Can taurine improve both your health AND your longevity?
The amino acid taurine broke into global headlines last week based on a study of mice and monkeys, but not humans. In the two animal groups, taurine supplementation increased lifespan and/or healthspan. Who wouldn’t want both?
“Mechanistically, taurine reduced cellular senescence, protected against telomerase deficiency, suppressed mitochondrial dysfunction, decreased DNA damage, and attenuated inflammaging.” More at Science with free full text.
In the NYTimes, one aging expert said, “There’s something here, and if it works in humans, it’s going to be a terrific thing.” However, he and others said human trials were needed. More at NY Times.
Taurine, which comes primarily from meats, shellfish and dairy products, is considered a non-essential amino acid. A Harvard nutrition expert told CNN that “This doesn’t seem like a story ready for prime time.” He noted that many human nutrition studies link high-meat consumption to poor health-longevity outcomes. More at CNN.
Testing, testing: How “illegal” super shoes perform in training workouts
Three years ago, running shoes beyond a certain outsole + midsole height (40mm, or about 1.57 inches) were ruled ineligible for competition by World Athletics, the world organization that controls regulations for the Olympics and other big races. The rationale--that thicker shoes might provide too much “energy return,” though I’m not aware that this has been confirmed in scientific testing.
At any rate, there’s nothing to stop you from wearing whatever you want in training--go barefoot, wear Army boots, or tinker with your shoes as you please. Several shoe companies now market shoes thicker than 40 mm for those who want them.
A product tester at Triathlete recently tried a pair of New Balance shoes that are 47mm thick. The good news: He enjoyed the extra cushioning and found them quite stable. Bad: Despite being super supers, if you will, he found them not very “springy” for uptempo training days. More at Triathlete.
Use a high intensity warm up to race faster in your next 5K
Warming up used to be a loosey-goosey exercise, or that’s what I thought. Do some light jogging, stretch a little, take a couple of strides … then head for the start line.
These days, the pre-race warmup has become more rigorous (and faster), with good evidence to support it for 800-meter and 1500-meter racers. What about 5000 meters? Many runners fear that an overly intense warmup would detract from their longer-distance races.
Here a group of highly fit runners tried two nearly identical warmups before racing a 5000-meter time trial. In one, they included 3 repeats of 250 meters at 70% of their vo2 max speed. In a second, they ran the 250s at 100% of vo2 max speed. All runners did both warmups prior to their 5000-meter trials in a crossover study design.
Both warmups lasted 8-10 minutes, and were followed by an 18-minute “transition” period before the 5K start. The 18-minute transition consisted of: 10 minutes quiet standing, 5 minutes skipping and hopping exercises, and 3 minutes quiet standing.
The warmup with the 3 high-intensity runs of 250 meters led to the faster 5000 meter times. The difference was a modest 6 seconds. Conclusion: “A high-intensity warm-up protocol can improve performance in the 5000 m in trained endurance runners.” More at J of Sports Science & Medicine with free full text.
To avoid bad air pollution days, switch to a treadmill run
Parts of the eastern U.S. and Canada had to deal with several days of horrible air pollution last week due to the massive fires in Canada. Health experts recommended that local residents spend as little time outdoors as possible, and consider using their Covid masks when outside. My Connecticut town wasn’t affected nearly as much as New York City, but I still wore a mask on two runs.
Reacting quickly, the folks at the NY Times’s “Wirecutter” review service updated their treadmill reviews. I was surprised to learn that one of the highest rated mills costs under $1100 at Dick’s Sporting Goods. More at NYTimes.
Sexercises: One for women, one for men
Sexual health isn’t the biggest bucket on the life/health continuum, but it’s part of the whole. And research has long shown that regular, moderate exercise has benefits for your sexual health. The link can get broken, however, by overtraining and/or undereating, since those both disrupt key hormones.
Here are the two newest results in the field: one for females, one for males. The first investigated “sexual desire” among postpartum women who had followed 24 sessions of “core stabilization exercises” vs a control group who did not. The core sessions improved endurance of the pelvic floor muscles and central part of the body.
Conclusion: “The study showed that the suggested exercises improved women's sexual desire; therefore, these exercises can improve the sexual health of mothers in the postpartum period, which can improve other aspects of people’s lives.” More at Iranian J of Nursing & Midwifery Research with free full text.
For the guys, two weeks of high intensity training every morning reduced premature ejaculation (PE) among those (ages 18 to 36) reporting the problem. Males who reached the highest heart rates during training achieved the biggest reductions in PE.
Conclusion: “High intensity training may reduce PE symptoms in men with PE. The heart-rate increase during the intervention may be a key factor.” The paper also noted that PE “is a common male sexual dysfunction worldwide,” and “there is still a lack of effective treatments without side effects.” More at Andrology.
Build stronger legs and hips for better running
I don’t know where David Roche got the chutzpah to stand in front of a video camera during several loooong, awkward segments while he demonstrated his favorite “Ultra Legs” routine. But he seemed to recognize his geek factor, as he superimposed a number of silly jokes on the screen.
Don’t let any of this bother you, because the Ultra Legs routine is a really good one. And Roche shows you how to do all the moves with almost no equipment (all of it lowcost). There’s an article here at Trail Runner and a video here on YouTube.
In another great leg-strengthening article, Amber Sayer demonstrates 10 different exercises geared to the hip muscles. All are illustrated with still photos, so you don’t have to click away to a separate video page. I can’t imagine anyone doing all 10 of these, but you can pick several you like. More at Outside Online.
Also, don’t forget that we sit too much, and don’t stretch our hips enough. So get up and walk around as much as you can, and include several hip stretches like these at Back Intelligence.
SHORT STUFF you don’t want to miss
GREAT QUOTES make great training partners
“The marathon is a reminder that we are all capable of greatness.”
--Meb Keflezighi
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you next week. Amby